A leading home décor company had a rich and successful heritage of growth and innovation and was previously led by one of the best. Upon being asked to assume the Presidency role in 2005, I immediately formed an Executive Leadership Team (ELT) consisting of all senior management and mission critical department heads.
The purpose of this core group of leaders was centered on the core belief of TStewart Enterprises in that success cannot be achieved alone. Each member had a voice and input into any key decisions and also the development of short and long term strategic plans and budgets. Any cross-departmental key decision has either a positive or negative impact either up or down the line and it was critical that we discuss all aspects and together develop an implementation plan that achieved the positive desired result of each major initiative. While such a team cannot make every decision, nor should they, the Leadership Team concept does provide a highly effective structure for brainstorming of ideas, open dialog, collaboration and implementation.
It was also through this process that all financials and budgets were developed. Each Leadership Team member had the ownership and now the responsibility to operate within their expense budgets and also to continue to save when and where they could. Neither I nor any of the Leadsership Team believed in the statement “it is in the budget so I can spend it”. The philosophy of the Leadership Team was to build an operational financial budget together and work to achieve and exceed the budgeted plans.